[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3198 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3198

    To amend the Small Business Act to improve the entrepreneurial 
  development programs of the Small Business Administration, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 17, 2012

Ms. Landrieu (for herself and Ms. Snowe) introduced the following bill; 
 which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business 
                          and Entrepreneurship

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Small Business Act to improve the entrepreneurial 
  development programs of the Small Business Administration, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Strengthening Resources for 
America's Entrepreneurs Act of 2012''.

SEC. 2. EXPANDING ENTREPRENEURSHIP.

    Section 4 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 633) is amended by 
adding at the end the following:
    ``(g) Management and Direction.--
            ``(1) Plan for entrepreneurial development and job creation 
        strategy.--
                    ``(A) Plan required.--The Administrator, in 
                consultation with a representative from each 
                entrepreneurial development program of the 
                Administration, shall develop and submit to Congress a 
                plan for using the entrepreneurial development programs 
                of the Administration to create jobs during fiscal 
                years 2013 and 2014.
                    ``(B) Contents of plan.--The plan required under 
                subparagraph (A) shall--
                            ``(i) include the plan of the Administrator 
                        for using existing programs, including small 
                        business development centers, women's business 
                        centers, the Service Corps of Retired 
                        Executives authorized by section 8(b)(1), 
                        veterans business centers, and programs of the 
                        Office of Native American Affairs, to create 
                        jobs;
                            ``(ii) identify a strategy for each region 
                        of the Administration to use programs of the 
                        Administration to create or retain jobs in the 
                        region; and
                            ``(iii) establish performance measures and 
                        criteria, including goals for job creation, job 
                        retention, and job retraining, to evaluate the 
                        success of the plan.
            ``(2) Data collection process.--
                    ``(A) In general.--The Administrator shall, after 
                notice and opportunity for comment, promulgate a rule 
                to develop and implement a consistent data collection 
                process for the entrepreneurial development programs.
                    ``(B) Contents.--The data collection process 
                developed under subparagraph (A) shall collect data 
                relating to job creation and performance and any other 
                data determined appropriate by the Administrator.
            ``(3) Coordination and alignment of sba entrepreneurial 
        development programs.--The Administrator, in consultation with 
        other Federal departments and agencies as the Administrator 
        determines is appropriate, shall submit an annual report to 
        Congress describing opportunities to foster coordination of, 
        limit duplication among, and improve program delivery for 
        Federal entrepreneurial development programs.
            ``(4) Database of entrepreneurial development service 
        providers.--
                    ``(A) Establishment.--After providing a period of 
                60 days for public comment, the Administrator shall--
                            ``(i) establish a database of providers of 
                        entrepreneurial development services; and
                            ``(ii) make the database available through 
                        the website of the Administration.
                    ``(B) Searchability.--The database established 
                under subparagraph (A) shall be searchable by industry, 
                geographic location, and service required.
            ``(5) Community specialist.--
                    ``(A) Designation.--The Administrator shall 
                designate not fewer than 1 staff member in each 
                district office of the Administration as a community 
                specialist whose full-time responsibility is working 
                with local providers of entrepreneurial development 
                services to increase coordination with Federal 
                entrepreneurial development programs.
                    ``(B) Performance.--The Administrator shall develop 
                benchmarks for measuring the performance of community 
                specialists under this paragraph.''.
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